5 Most valuable Minutes in the film Taxi Driver

After our screening of Taxi Driver consider what you feel is the most important 5 minutes (or less) of the film is in terms of:

The most valuable 5 minutes can be seen below.


1. The film intent theme or ideology

 Martin Scorsese was born in New York, and then moved to Hollywood. He directed over 25 films. Taxi Driver "elevated" Scorsese's status as a director and Paul Schrader became a major screenwriter. The film's intent is to show the life in New York City. In the 1970s New York almost filed for bankruptcy. This led to to people to strike such as trash collectors, and this caused the streets to be filled with garbage. The central theme revolves around sexuality, racism, and dominance. Guns represents Travis masculine power and its a symbol of masculine power. For example when the passenger told Travis he was going to kill his wife, he called Travis 'Cabby'. This shows that the passenger doesn't see a risk of telling Travis the truth, because Travis here is being depersonalized. Travis is racist, for example when he speaks to Charlie T he pretends to be unable to understand what he says. This is a common racist practice.Also the theme of old west is seen when Travis practices to shoot bullets, and through his appearance of his brown boots. Many Cowboy films are racist and end up killing many people, which Travis does in the end.

2. Relate the film to rest of the director's body of work

This is Scorsese's fourth film and he combined elements of film noir, western, horror, and urban melodrama genres. At a young age he wanted to become a priest, and this can relate to the film because porn is a sin, and he is showing that through Travis. Travis knows that New York is filthy and he is referring to prostitutes. In the 1970s there was a group of directors called the "film school brats" and Scorsese was apart of this group. People in this group were young Americans who had studied European filmmakers at film school. They were also the first generation of filmmakers to have grown up watching television. Basically the majority of filmmakers in this group focused on close attention to technical detail. They also demonstrated knowledge about film and television history. This relates to the film because Scorsese paid attention to close details, such as Travis's room, or the many reaction shots of Travis when he watched porn movies or had different types of people in his cab.

3. Defining the genre characteristics of the film

Film genres in this movie are western, horror, and urban melodrama. It explores the psychological madness of a lonely anti-hero cab driver. Travis is an anti hero because he does bad things such as killing a pimp and a black guy for the right reasons. He kills the pimp to free Alice from the dirty life she is in, and he is trying to help her regain the purity in her life. Also, Travis is an anti- hero because he wants to save someone's life even though its going to cost him. He does bad things, but the audience gives him sympathy, because they know that he is trying to do the right thing. The western genre is a major occurrence in the film. First we see Travis pointing guns as staring in a mirror. He practices the whole cowboy stance. Then he begins to change his appearance by wearing cowboy boots. There is also the genre of sexuality. When Travis talks about cleaning all the scum off the streets, he is talking about whores, queens, dopers, junkies, etc. When he takes Betsy to a porn movie, it shows a kind of rape, and this can show Travis's isolation. The porn move he takes Betsy to is non violent, and it shows that he usually watches the violent ones. In some scenes Travis is sitting in the movie theaters and he starts to cover his eyes, which sows that he is watching violent porn.   

4. The relation of specific film to film history 

Taxi Driver has been influenced by John Ford's The Searchers (1956). This is about a angry war veteran and a social outcast who becomes obsessed of his young niece. So basically the angry war veteran had a quest to liberate the young girl, restore her virtue, and to return her to society. He does this to purify his own soul, but in the end he is still isolated. De Niro's (Travis) performance was compelling and fascinating to watch. His target practice 'You talkin' to me?' monologue before a mirror remains one of the best known sequences in film history. The film helped expand the director's and screenwriter's careers. Also made many actors and actresses in the movies become major stars. For example Jodie Foster became an actress and director. Cybill Sheperherd became a popular television star. Also the movie had a memorable lamenting saxophone score by Bernard Herrmann. He provided some of cinema's best known musical accompaniments. The film has become prophetic and reflected the violence of contemporary news headlines. The film is also linked to and may have triggered the political assassination attempt by John Hinckley on President Ronald Reagan in 1981. This film also influenced other future filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and David Fincher.

5 Minute Extract
If video is not working, go to youtube and search Taxi Driver 1976 Full Movie part 5/8

The extract is from 8:17 to 14:17


I chose this extract because it shows many different genres. Also the audience can thoroughly understand Travis's character and his struggle to put an end to the madness going on in the streets of New York. His reaction shots, the music played in this section, and the dialogue used helps show the overall narrative of this film. This extract connects to the opening narrative of Travis wanting to "flush" New York City down the "toilet". 


This extract relates to the narrative because it mentions Betsy and centralizes the genre of the old west. For example, as Travis lays on his bed, the audience sees him wearing cowboy boots. Also when he closes the letter intended to his parents, he is wearing straps for placing his guns. His appearance show this genre and it changes the whole film. since he begins to dress like a cowboy, it foreshadows that he is going to kill someone. At first I believed that he was going to kill Palentine, but he stopped because he got scared. As he watches t.v. he points the gun on his face, which foreshadows that he wants to commit suicide, and near the end he tries to commit suicide but he ran out of bullets. 

During that scene, the music playing in the background gave a sad mood, and this showed is isolationism from other people. Through the reaction shots it seemed that he felt lonely, but at the same time he was mad at the people. He is mad at the people for making new York City dirty. When we first saw the show on, a black dude appeared and Travis pointed his gun at him. It shows racism, and also when he killed the guy at the store. The white guy told him to not worry about, this shows that racism still existed.
In the scene where Travis kills the black dude isn't really only about racism. Since Travis had an issue about New York being bad and dirty, he was fed up with people who do wrong things, and in his mind the only way to end it is to kill the bad people. This relates to Alice, because the only way he freed Alice is by killing the bad guy, which in this case was the pimp and the landowner who owns the rooms. 


The dialogue in this extract shows that Travis is not intelligent or smart. He is speaking very slowly, and it shows that his mind takes time to process things. In the first 10 seconds of the extract Travis is writing in his journal, but he repeated his words twice, because he didn't know how to phrase it. Travis is traumatized from the effects of war, this can be sen through the mis en scene. For example the card he choses to send for his parents isn;t the right choice, I mean its a cartoon. Also Palentine says that people know what "suffering" is and he refers himself as part of the people. The  reason why Travis doesn't like Palentine because he knows that he will not do anything to fix New York City. Also Palentine must remind him of Betsy and when he burned the flowers it shows that he has moved on. This film is created after the Vietnam war, and it shows how this one soldier came back from te war with mental problems due to the horrors of battle and fighting. Travis shows that he is a hero, even if the US didn't win, but he helped someone's life. He helped Alice regain her normal good life again by going back to school.